baltimoreblackwoman

Happy New Year!

Welcome to the new design for baltimoreblackwoman!

I want to change the look of my page for 2017, to reflect a new focus for this year, so I am testing this new theme. No more Wise Owl (maybe!). Instead, I want to immerse myself in the City I love, so why not use a Baltimore skyline as the backdrop for my page?

On New Year’s Eve, during our local televised celebration on WJZ TV, our newly elected Mayor, Catherine Pugh, pledged to focus on Baltimore neighborhoods, explaining that she has already begun to tour them. This is a plan I wholeheartedly endorse, and I hope that she follows through in earnest. Baltimore is a city of neighborhoods, and I have long lamented the lack of focus on this strength by our recent mayors and other leaders.

Likewise, in thinking about where to take this blog, I realized that I have not focused enough on my city! Yes, I have written about the Freddie Gray case and other related issues that made the news, both local and national, over the last couple of years. I’ve even written wistfully about the  Baltimore of my youth, as if everything good about the city had disappeared after the 1968 riots. Well, a lot of great things did disappear back then.

But over the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to see Baltimore rising, in hopeful and even exciting ways. And, truth be told, there are many areas of the city that have remained grounded and stable, even in the face of our many challenges.

So, this year, my plan is to write more about this City that I love; to explore our neighborhoods, people, and values as they exist today.

New Features for 2017

• Picture/Video-Essays on Baltimore Neighborhoods
• Stories about people and organizations making a positive impact on Baltimore
• Murals of Baltimore

These are just a few items I want to develop this year. These three, alone, will take a lot of work. But, at the same time, I won’t abandon the basic “structure” of this page—there will still be posts from the categories I’ve already set up, an occasional political rant, and even some nostalgia pieces. But my goal is to be more Baltimore-centric.

For now, though, I ask for your feedback (in the Comments section) on the new look (which I’m still tweaking), the plans, and anything else about baltimoreblackwoman.

HAPPY 2017!